Rheological properties of sheared vesicle and cell suspensions

Numerical simulations of vesicle suspensions are performed in two dimensions to study their dynamical and rheological properties. An hybrid method is adopted, which combines a mesoscopic approach for the solvent with a curvature-elasticity model for the membrane. Shear flow is induced by two counter-sliding parallel walls, which generate a linear flow profile. The flow behavior is studied for various vesicle concentrations and viscosity ratios between the internal and the external fluid.

Applications of network-based survival analysis methods for pathway detection in cancer

Gene expression data from high-throughput assays, such as microarray, are often used to predict cancer survival. Available datasets consist of a small number of samples (n patients) and a large number of genes (p predictors). Therefore, the main challenge is to cope with the high-dimensionality. Moreover, genes are co-regulated and their expression levels are expected to be highly correlated. In order to face these two issues, network based approaches can be applied.

Is this the right normalization? A diagnostic tool for ChIP-seq normalization

Background: Chip-seq experiments are becoming a standard approach for genome-wide profiling protein-DNA interactions, such as detecting transcription factor binding sites, histone modification marks and RNA Polymerase II occupancy. However, when comparing a ChIP sample versus a control sample, such as Input DNA, normalization procedures have to be applied in order to remove experimental source of biases. Despite the substantial impact that the choice of the normalization method can have on the results of a ChIP-seq data analysis, their assessment is not fully explored in the literature.

New Results on Rational Approximation

First asymptotic relations of Voronovskaya-type for rational operators of Shepard-type are shown. A positive answer in some senses to a problem on the pointwise approximation power of linear operators on equidistant nodes posed by Gavrea, Gonska and Kacs is given. Direct and converse results, computational aspects and Gruss-type inequalities are also proved. Finally an application to images compression is discussed, showing the outperformance of such operators in some senses.

ZFP57 recognizes multiple and closely spaced sequence motif variants to maintain repressive epigenetic marks in mouse embryonic stem cells.

Imprinting Control Regions (ICRs) need to maintain their parental allele-specific DNA methylation during early embryogenesis despite genome-wide demethylation and subsequent de novo methylation. ZFP57 and KAP1 are both required for maintaining the repressive DNA methylation and H3-lysine-9-trimethylation (H3K9me3) at ICRs. In vitro, ZFP57 binds a specific hexanucleotide motif that is enriched at its genomic binding sites.

Numerical solution of the Perspective Shape- from-Shading problem

We study the Perspective Shape from Shading problem from the numerical point of view pre- senting a simple algorithm to compute its solution. The scheme is based on a semi-Lagrangian approximation of the first order Hamilton-Jacobi equation related to the problem. The scheme is converging to the weak solution (in the viscosity sense) of the equation and allows to compute accurately regular as well as non regular solutions.

Extinction dynamics of a discrete population in an oasis

Understanding the conditions ensuring the persistence of a population is an issue of primary importance in population biology. The first theoretical approach to the problem dates back to the 1950s with the Kierstead, Slobodkin, and Skellam (KiSS) model, namely a continuous reaction-diffusion equation for a population growing on a patch of finite size L surrounded by a deadly environment with infinite mortality, i.e., an oasis in a desert. The main outcome of the model is that only patches above a critical size allow for population persistence.

Fundamental diagrams in traffic flow: the case of heterogeneous kinetic models

Experimental studies on vehicular traffic provide data on quantities like density, flux, and mean speed of the vehicles. However, the diagrams relating these variables (the fundamental and \emph{speed} diagrams) show some peculiarities not yet fully reproduced nor explained by mathematical models. In this paper, resting on the methods of kinetic theory, we introduce a new traffic model which takes into account the heterogeneous nature of the flow of vehicles along a road.